Saturday with Gutenberg

"Of what is she dreaming?

Of long nights lit with orange lanterns,

Of wine-cups and compliments and kisses of the two-sword men."

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"Japanese Prints" by John Gould Fletcher is a thin book — if an e-book can be thin — it has only 96 pages and a short preface. But this is a book to read slowly to take pleasure in one picture and one verse at a time.

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Little Will Shakespeare was going homeward through the dusk from Gammer Gurton's fireside. He had no timorous fears, not he. He would walk proudly and deliberately as becomes a man. Men are not afraid. Yet Gammer had told of strange happenings at her home. A magpie had flown screaming over the roof, the butter would not come in the churn, an' a strange cat had slipped out afore the maid at daybreak—a cat without a tail, Gammer said—

Little Will quickened his pace.

Dusk falls early these December days, and Willy Shakespeare scurrying along the street is only five, and although men are not afraid yet——

I have no idea of who George Madden Martin (1866-1936) was — but I this book from 1916 about Willy Shakespeare seem to be fiction written for children.
I'm a tad doubtful about the good with this kind of books, as I know from my own experience that children tend to believe that stories like this tells the absolute truth.

"'An' I shall be a player, too' ... says Willy Shakespeare"

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"The dog saw me off."

Edith Nesbit being one of may favorite authors — and loving cats and dogs I simply had to download "Pussy and Doggie Tales" by E. Nesbit from 1899.

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Another favorite author is Hilaire Belloc so among my Saturday finds are three of his books.
Bad Child's Book of Beasts", "More Beasts (For Worse Children)" and "More Peers Verses". I have seen them all before but not with these illustrations by Ian Basil Gawaine Temple, Lord. Blackwood.

The Vulture

The Vulture eats between his meals,

And that's the reason why

He very, very rarely feels

As well as you and I.

His eye is dull,

his head is bald,

His neck is growing thinner.

Oh! what a lesson for us all

To only eat at dinner!

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I read all of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey's (Susan Coolidge) Katy-books as a child but nothing else by her. Yesterday I found "A Little Country Girl" which I intend to start with this afternoon.

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The books are:

"Japanese Prints" by John Gould Fletcher

"A Warwickshire Lad, The Story of the Boyhood of William Shakespeare" by George Madden Martin (1866-1936)

"Pussy and Doggie Tales"by Edith Nesbit (1858-1924)

"Bad Child's Book of Beasts", "More Beasts (For Worse Children)", "More Peers Verses " by Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

"A Little Country Girls" by Susan Coolidge (1835-1905